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Gains in U.S. job growth expected, but weather may weigh
U.S. hiring likely picked up enough in February to keep the Federal Reserve on track in reducing its monetary stimulus. But the size of the gain is nevertheless expected to be modest as the economy struggles to break free of the grip of unusually severe winter weather. Nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 149,000 last month, with the jobless rate holding at a five-year low of 6.6 percent, according to a Reuters survey of economists. "Without adverse weather we could have ended with something above 200,000," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York. Nonfarm payrolls averaged ... (full story)